THE breakdown of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s marriage is increasingly being blamed on the actress’s “obsession” with health, alternative medicines and the Kabbalah religion.

Martin, 37, who, neighbours say, was often seen in a local sweetshop buying treats for his children, struggled to deal with aspects of Paltrow’s strict, almost sugar-free lifestyle which is believed to have contributed to the split.

It is thought that he found her diet and rules both constricting and hard on the children and that the couple’s decision to split amicably was advised by Dr Habib Sadeghi.

Dr Sadeghi, who is the founder of an integrative health centre based in Los Angeles, is also said to have secretly advised her on how to split from her husband of almost 11 years.

Mother-of-two Paltrow has often raved about the doctor and his “genius” in the past, saying that she visits him the very second she touches down in Los Angeles. Further issues arose between the pair due to her Kabbalah beliefs, which she turned to for help to deal with personal issues.

A couple of years ago Paltrow, 41, shocked people when she revealed her very strict parenting rules.

She admitted that she only allowed the couple’s two children, daughter Apple, nine, and son Moses, seven, to watch television in French or Spanish.

The lure of Oreos and cotton candy outweighed the lure of carrots and hummus

Gwyneth Paltrow, on the diets of her children

She revealed in one of her posts on her Goop website that she tried to start her children off on the right foot nutrition-wise. “But the lure of Oreos and cotton candy outweighed the lure of carrots and hummus. And that’s all part of childhood and I love Oreos too, so I completely understand,” she said.

However it was perhaps not enough for the Coldplay singer who was spotted taking his children to get ice cream while out and about in LA last year.

Another reason for pressure in the relationship may have been pictures, taken last September, capturing Paltrow kissing ex-boyfriend Donovan Leitch at a baseball game in Los Angeles.

She was seen warmly greeting the British actor, 46, and the son of 1960s singer Donovan, at the match.

But a spokesman for Paltrow dismissed claims the pair were seeing one another, saying: “It’s completely absurd. Donovan has been a close friend of Gwyneth’s for over 20 years. The photo you see is them kissing hello when Donovan arrived at the game.”

Paltrow and Martin, who married in Mexico in 2003, announced their split on Tuesday in a statement entitled Conscious Uncoupling.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin kiss in 2003, the year they married [REX]